Marinette pulled her notebook out of her bag and was reaching in to grab a pencil when Alya waved to her from the doorway.

"Marinette! I saw this last night, c'mon, you've gotta see this!" she said excitedly, rushing over. As Alya approached, Marinette noticed the magazine in her hands. She slammed it on Marinette's desk, flipping through the pages expertly until she reached a dog-eared one.

"Look, isn't this so cool?" Alya asked. "This girl looks exactly like you!"

Marinette froze. There it was, a glossy picture of her and Adrien, covering a full page. Her stomach did an odd little flip-flop as she looked more closely. His arm was wrapped around her as they sat, and she was looking up at him in a way that was almost...cute? Adrien gazed back at her with what looked like a little something extra in his eyes, but maybe that was just her overactive imagination. She never expected the photoshoot pictures to even run in print, but here she was on a full-page spread in an actual magazine! This was definitely going on her wall back home!

"Uh, actually, Alya…" Marinette trailed off. Alya looked at her expectantly. "I kind of maybe ran into Adrien at the park and that is me in the photos, and-"

"-excuse me, WHAT?!" Alya shrieked, shaking her by the shoulders, drawing the attention of several nearby students.

"Not so loud!" Marinette hissed through her teeth, turning to smile awkwardly at her curious classmates.

"This is so great!" Alya gushed. "You and Adrien look so adorable and- hey, wait! You never told me about any of this!"

"Sorry, Alya," Marinette said, looking down at her shoes. Her hand came up to the back of her neck. "I've been so busy lately, it totally slipped my mind. Besides, I didn't think anything would actually come of the whole photoshoot thing, it was really last minute."

She hadn't been sure that her friend would appreciate her flaking out on prep time for the election anyways. Luckily she had been able to explain it away when asked, and the two hadn't dwelled on the subject. How Marinette regretted that lie now.

"You misunderstand me," Alya replied. "I could care less about the photo shoot. I mean, it's great that you're in a magazine and all. It's just that you had an adorably sweet and squee-worthy moment with your SOULMATE and you conveniently forgot to mention it to your best friend in the whole wide world?"

"Woah, woah, whoa," Marinette said, wheeling her hands in front of her. "Soulmates? I think that's going a little far. I mean, sure, I like him. I like him a lot and everything, but...EEP!"

She squealed as she felt a hand on her shoulder. And she knew that it wasn't Alya. "Hey, ladies," Adrien said with a smile. Marinette stood rooted to her spot, heart pounding, only moving her head as she swiveled to see him. "Did you see the ad yet? I think it came out really great. Nice job by the way, Marinette," he said, focusing the full force of his smile directly on her, seemingly ignorant of just how disarming that could be.

"Er, thanks," Marinette started, melting slightly under his gaze. "I th-think so too. It was a lot of fun to be so close to- uh, to get so close to you- I mean, ah, sorry…"

"No, no, it's fine," Adrien reassured her. "I felt like I was closer to getting to know you

too. Anyway, both my photographer and agent had only positive things to say about the whole thing, and they've been presented with an ad opportunity from a major fashion house. I haven't been told which one yet, because they wanted you as well and wanted you to hear about it at the same time."

Marinette's teacher strode to the front of the room. They had mere seconds before they were expected to be in their seats, but Adrien wasn't finished. Marinette shrank in her seat. "Oh."

"Sorry," he said. "I wish I had more information to give you… Maybe I can get my agent to meet us for coffee this weekend. She likes doing stuff like that in person, and really wants to get to know you better. Probably to try to get you to hire her. You have a ton of potential, y'know. Would you be interested? Maybe Saturday?" He slipped into his seat in front of her just as their teacher stepped to the front of the room.

"Saturday… sounds… great," she managed to say, looking to Alya for support.

"Marinette," her teacher said cooly. "Do you have something to share with the class?"

Marinette cringed. "No, ma'am, sorry."

Adrien looked at her sympathetically and ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook as the lecture began. Marinette tried to pay attention, but the heat that rose up the back of her neck would not go away, and she was distracted by Adrien. Was he taking notes already? The teacher hadn't said anything important yet. Maybe he was writing a note to someone. Probably Chloe. Some people have all the luck, she smiled wryly.

It should have been obvious it was for Marinette, but then, nothing was ever obvious for her. It's not as if boys often passed her notes, and a note from Adrien?

He stretched back lazily in a smooth catlike motion, and in doing so dropped the neatly folded paper onto Marinette's desk. It read: Okay I'm sorry I lied. I know who the shoot is for. It's-

Marinette gasped out loud. There was no way she could model for them!

Her teacher glared at her, but made no comment, turning back to the board.

She blushed, but excitedly looked back at the note.

- and you can't just talk about top-secret potential shoots with powerful companies out in the open, you never know who could be listening. Sorry about that. How about Saturday at my house? My agent will meet us at ten.

Marinette looked down at Adrien. He turned as if he could feel her eyes in the back of his head, and she nodded to confirm the plan. He smiled and mouthed, Talk to you then.